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| <h1>Upgrading Eclipse</h1> |
| <p>If you are upgrading to a newer release of Eclipse from an older release, there are simple steps to follow to |
| migrate your workspace to the new release. Your workspace is the directory on disk that contains all of your project |
| files, as well as meta-data such as preferences you may have customized. The steps to follow for upgrading depend on |
| whether or not you used the "-data" command line argument when starting Eclipse. The "-data" argument is recommended |
| because it clearly specifies the location of your workspace.</p> |
| <p><i>Tip:</i> It doesn't hurt to make a backup of your workspace before upgrading. After you've upgraded your |
| workspace, you won't be able to use it again with an older version of Eclipse. If you ever want to go "back in time" |
| to an earlier release, you'll need that backup!</p> |
| <p>The workspace chooser dialog allows you to choose the location of your workspace. This dialog appears on first |
| startup in the absence of a -data argument. The default location provided by this dialog will be a "workspace" child |
| of your home directory (for example, C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\workspace.)</p> |
| <p>Unless you have an existing workspace from a previous Eclipse version, you can keep this default or choose some |
| other location. You should not store your workspace inside the Eclipse install directory, because that will make it |
| more difficult to upgrade to a newer version of Eclipse. You should not copy or move the workspace directory, because |
| it may contain metadata with absolute file system paths, which will be invalid if the workspace is copied |
| elsewhere.</p> |
| <p>In Eclipse 3.0 and earlier, Eclipse's default location for the workspace was under the Eclipse directory. For |
| example, if the eclipse.exe was in D:\eclipse-SDK-3.0.1\eclipse, then the default workspace location would be |
| D:\eclipse-SDK-3.0.1\eclipse\workspace.</p> |
| <p>To load a workspace created using 3.0 or earlier, just point to the old workspace directory using the workspace |
| chooser, whether it's under the old install directory or elsewhere.</p> |
| <h2>Using the "-data" argument</h2> |
| <p>If you were previously using the "-data" argument to start Eclipse, your upgrade path is much easier:</p> |
| <ol> |
| <li>Install the new version of Eclipse in a new location, separate from any old version of Eclipse.</li> |
| <li>Start this new version of Eclipse, using the "-data" command line argument to point to your old workspace |
| location.</li> |
| </ol> |
| <p>See the example in the previous section for an illustration.</p> |
| <h2>Adding third party plug-ins</h2> |
| <p>If you have installed extra plug-ins in your Eclipse environment, you will need to add these new plug-ins to each |
| new build or version of Eclipse you install. Before you do this, refer to the documentation for those plug-ins to |
| ensure they are compatible with the version of Eclipse you are moving to. There are several ways to add these extra |
| plug-ins to your new Eclipse install:</p> |
| <ol> |
| <li>Copy the directories for each plug-in into the "dropins" directory of your new Eclipse version.</li> |
| <li>Use an Eclipse update site to re-install those extra plug-ins or features in the new version of Eclipse.</li> |
| <li>If you are using product extensions, simply copy the "links" directory into the new Eclipse version install |
| directory. For more details on product extensions, see the documentation in the Platform Plug-in Developer Guide, |
| under <b>Programmer's Guide > Packaging and delivering Eclipse based products > Product extensions</b>.</li> |
| </ol> |
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